Trouble Previewing Forms in ODK Central on Ubuntu Server 22.04: 'Could Not Connect with Form Server' Error

Hey @kibrom.mahari ! :waving_hand:

If you're looking to deploy ODK Central locally and still be able to access it from anywhere in the world, I'd suggest checking out the method I shared - "here" - it might be a good starting point.

However, if you're planning to use it for production or handling any critical data, I strongly recommend going with a more trusted tunneling service - like Cloudflare - rather than something like Telebit (which I mentioned in the topic).

Even better, for a fully private and robust setup, you can look into using FRP. You can actually deploy FRP for free on Oracle’s free-tier .. ! It’s a really solid option if you're aiming for long-term and private use.

Just a few things to note:

  1. If you’re just experimenting and want to explore what ODK Central can do by deploying it locally, feel free to follow the topic I shared - it should work just fine for testing purposes.
  2. The most trusted, robust, and private solution in my opinion is using FRP. (I like Cloudflare too, but I always keep skepticism about their intentions).
  3. I wouldn't recommend using a locally tunneled setup for production and mission-critical data collection - there are just too many variables like internet stability, latency, and the risk of an improper deployment shutdown causing bigger issues down the line.

Hope this helps! Have a great day! :smile:

1 Like